A Certain Slant of Light

But perhaps there will be such a societal shift that people will have a much higher threshold for what counts as an appropriate desire to touch anyone we feel close to. "Ah yes," they will say, "an acquaintance you see three times a year, clearly a three-minute hug is an appropriate amount of physical contact with which to initiate this conversation. An actual friend? Well clearly it's cool if you just want to sit in each other's laps while you have dinner in this restaurant."